Soap Box preacher Jason Cragg used to be just an everyday crack pot until the day that his voice began influencing the thoughts of people. Appearing in the city, he begins telling people that Ant-Man is a crook that must be driven from the city. Passing by, Ant-Man hears this insane litany, and is shocked to find that the people around Cragg begin to believe him. Surprising still, it's something about his voice that's compelling people to agree with him, Ant-Man however, is shielded because his helmet shields him from the attack.

Flashing back a few weeks past, we learn that Jason Cragg came to the city from the Midwest in hopes of becoming a radio announcer. While giving a pitiful audition, a near-by experimental atomic laboratory has a million-in-one accident that causes an ionized atom to escape into the electrical system, and pass through the microphone that Cragg is speaking into. Cragg finds himself strangely effected, and his ability to voice suggestion becomes apparent when his voice being over the airwaves causes sales to jump three hundred percent at the radio station.

Realizing his voice could mean he would never have to work another day in his life, Cragg's quits his job at the radio station and soon begins exploiting his powers for his own personal gain. Sometime later, Cragg's witnesses Ant-Man busting up some criminals, and soon becomes jealous of the crime fighters respect and adulation from the masses. This gives Cragg's his inspiration to vilify Ant-Man in hopes that he can rule the city.

Returning to the present, we find Ant-Man at a local police precinct being awarded for his meritorious service. As Ant-Man is receiving his commendation, Cragg's barges in demanding that the hero be arrested, and the police suddenly start trying to capture Ant-Man.

Ant-Man manages to escape the police and attempts to seek refuge in a near-by park, but when Cragg's enslaved thrall attempts to find him by using magnets, he is forced to remove his helmet to avoid being captured. Cragg's manages find Ant-Man and forces the tiny hero to listen to his voice. Without his helmet, Ant-Man is helpless from the helmets effects and is ordered to walk off a pier to drown in a near-by harbor.

Ant-Man is saved by his ants at the last minute, shaking off the effects of Cragg's voice he manages to escape. Returning to his home, and back in his civilian identity, Henry Pym, Ant-Man learns that Cragg's plans on addressing people on national television. Realizing the damaging potential of Cragg's voice on national TV, Ant-Man formulates a plan to foil Cragg's scheme.

Arriving at the TV studio, Ant-Man interrupts Cragg's television address, and tells the villain that his ant's are pointing a loaded gun at him. Fearing for his life, Cragg's agrees to tell the people that Ant-Man is not a crook, but an upstanding hero. Ant-Man then tells Cragg's that the gun wasn't really loaded and it was all a trick. Trying to sway the viewing audience to his will again, Cragg's attempts to re-convince the people that Ant-Man is a crook, but finds that his powers no longer work. Ant-Man reveals that he covered the microphone with Laryngitis microbes and that they have taken effect and effected his voice, rendering it's suggestive properties useless.

The crowd, thinking Cragg's some crazy nut, toss him out onto the street.

A humanoid robot escapes his creator's lab with an artificial face and clothes in order to live among humans as a man. He is so disillusioned with human beings inhumanity to their fellows that he removes the mask and allows his creator to bring him back to the lab. His maker says to him "You must have known you could never have passed for human for long." to which the robot replies to the startled engineer "Has the thought never occurred to you that no robot would want to?"

Notes

In this issue, Ant-Man's home city is given as Center City - this is the first time a specific city name is given. However, starting with Tales to Astonish
#44, he is placed in Manhattan. Considering that Center City is only mentioned in this and Tales to Astonish Vol 1 43, this can be assumed to be a retcon.

This issue is reprinted in other comics and books, see references for more info.[1]